When I was twelve, I was introduced to the fantasy and science fiction writings of Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, and C.J. Cherryh. From that point onward, fantasy and science fiction became a fascination for me. I wrote my first novella at age sixteen and wrote many short stories throughout my high school and early college career. After deciding to get a “practical” college degree (Biology), I worked for a time as a lab tech all the while continuing to write and attempting to get my books published.
Eventually, I tired of the repetition of lab work and went back to school to take classes in History. My interest in Medieval British History in particular led me to get an M.A. and then a Ph.D. in Medieval British History, with a focus on Medieval Wales. That love of History, particularly all things Celtic, led me to incorporate aspects of Celtic society and culture into the first book in the Daughter of the West series, Avatar. But as the main character in the book—Constance of Eumhal, or as she prefers, Stanzi—traveled to new and different lands, I incorporated what I had learned about the Medieval Crusades, Early Medieval Russia, Ancient Greece, and—for the fourth book in the series—Ancient Egypt to illuminate the very diverse and interesting world in which Stanzi lives and has her adventures.
The next book in the series, a prequel which will set up the events that led to Stanzi’s homeland—the West Country, aka Cimbria—being ruled by the Debenese, will take readers back to the West Country 300 years before Stanzi’s adventures and will focus once again on the culture that shaped Stanzi’s society and her own worldview.